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The 49ers' Biggest Need Heading into the Trade Deadline

Right now, it seems the 49ers need everything, considering roughly half of their starters are injured.
Grant Cohn|
The 49ers' Biggest Need Heading into the Trade Deadline
The 49ers' Biggest Need Heading into the Trade Deadline

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San Francisco 49ers

The NFL trade deadline is November 1. That means the 49ers have two more games to assess their roster and decide what position they need to acquire.

Right now, it seems the 49ers need everything, considering roughly half their starters are injured. They could trade for a running back such as Christian McCaffrey to jumpstart an offense that currently ranks 18th out 32 teams in yards. Or they could trade for an edge rusher such as Brian Burns to help a defensive line that currently doesn't have Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead or Javon Kinlaw.

But those defensive linemen are supposed to return eventually. And of all the 49ers injured players, the only two who won't return for certain are Trey Lance and Emmanuel Moseley. And of those two, Moseley will be the toughest to replace.

Moseley was playing like a Pro Bowl cornerback before he tore his ACL. And the tandem of him and Charvarius Ward elevated the 49ers defense from good to great. Suddenly, it had no weaknesses. It was intercepting passes in bunches and generating coverage sacks for the first time in years.

Now the new starting cornerback is Deommodore Lenoir, who was a rookie last season and didn't play much. He started last week against the Falcons, but the Falcons threw just 14 passes. Still, in four games this season, he has given up 21 catches on 27 targets and a passer rating of 99.8. Not good.

This upcoming Sunday, you can bet the Kansas City Chiefs will attack Lenoir all game. Let's see how he does. If he struggles, the 49ers should strongly consider trading for a cornerback at the deadline.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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